 | Poems to Thespia |  |
1
INTRODUCTION.
Scorning with studied art to drag along
The doubled epithet of monstrous length,
Join in the quaint alliterative song,
Court feeble melody, and banish strength.
The doubled epithet of monstrous length,
Join in the quaint alliterative song,
Court feeble melody, and banish strength.
No labour'd, no fictitious strains I bring,
But unreserved pour forth my honest heart;
Nature and true affection bade me sing,
I felt the wound of no pretended dart.
But unreserved pour forth my honest heart;
Nature and true affection bade me sing,
I felt the wound of no pretended dart.
Oh! may my pen desert my palsied hand,
When I survive to real sense a pest!
Or fix in nice array with order's wand
The hasty ebullitions of my breast!
When I survive to real sense a pest!
Or fix in nice array with order's wand
The hasty ebullitions of my breast!
2
My theme is chosen mid the British Fair,
No antique Bards for love-thoughts I explore,
No fabled Gods from Greece and Rome I bear,
No Nymphs or Dryads from the classic shore.
No antique Bards for love-thoughts I explore,
No fabled Gods from Greece and Rome I bear,
No Nymphs or Dryads from the classic shore.
Such ornaments may please the shallow mind,
Exotic gewgaws twisted into rhime;
But elegance delights in chaplets twined
By nature's hand, and inmates of the clime.
Exotic gewgaws twisted into rhime;
But elegance delights in chaplets twined
By nature's hand, and inmates of the clime.
Nor here hath Love disdain'd his gifts to shed,
The feeling soul is not unfrequent here;
And genuine rapture by the graces led,
Oft tunes the lyre, and thrills the listening ear.
The feeling soul is not unfrequent here;
And genuine rapture by the graces led,
Oft tunes the lyre, and thrills the listening ear.
| Poems to Thespia | |